


The Steam-Modern Prometheus

by Geonn



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Established Relationship, F/F, Romance, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-01
Updated: 2012-03-01
Packaged: 2017-10-31 23:32:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geonn/pseuds/Geonn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Samantha is working on a very special project.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Steam-Modern Prometheus

Her brown coveralls made it easy to blend in, even when the lamps were fully lit. She had a scavenged aviator's cap pulled low over her shaggy blonde hair, and the goggles protected her eyes from the blowing dust and debris that swirled over the hills of refuse in the junkyard. She moved past crashed airships, mangled wreckages that were twisted and molded together until it was impossible to tell where one ended and the next began. She stopped at the huge, curved belly of one beast, her leather glove on the side as she bent down to look underneath. The engine had already been snatched, and she cursed and rapped her knuckles against the hull.

The dogs were out, but she had treats. The guard dogs here knew her well enough that they would only charge her to get their snack. One of them sometimes even trailed after her when she was wandering. 

The ground fell away sharply in front of her. At the bottom of the rise, automatons were stacked on top of each other like firewood. Sam skidded down the slope and brushed off her rear end as she approached the hideous pile of bodies. Some claimed the automs were intelligent despite their servile demeanor. She doubted it, but she still hesitated to touch their skins. 

She took a small scanner out of her pocket and ran it over the bodies. Slight energy readings, but nothing near what she needed. She moved through the graveyard of steel and wires, her boots sticking in the occasional pools of tacky oil that had dripped from the corpses. The display of her scanner never rose above the level of "Slight." She was nearing frustration when the levels suddenly spiked. 

Sam stopped where she was and carefully retraced her steps. The spike was coming from the north, so she went in that direction. Her heart pounded as she moved aside the dead and charge-free bodies until she found the one that lit up her scanner. It was just a torso, missing its head and limbs. It had been discarded before it ran out of power. She cracked open the shell of the body and held her breath as she examined the power source.

"Yes... hallelujah. Yes!"

She carefully extracted the glowing-green node, careful not to damage the contact points. By the time she finished, she was dripping sweat and all of her fingers had been pinched or smashed against the tight confines of the autom's chest. She patted it on the side. "Thank you for your sacrifice. It's for a noble cause, I assure you."

Sam wrapped the node in a piece of oilcloth and jumped down to the ground. She hurried from the junkyard grounds, bypassing the guard as he went about his rounds. She cradled her treasure to her chest as she waited for just the right moment to dart out into the street. Her boots slapped against the pavement, surely loud enough to draw attention, but no one stopped her.

After a few blocks without incident, she stopped running. She found a box in a dumpster and put the node inside. Carrying a box was less suspicious than cradling a slightly-glowing bundle of cloth down the street. She was skittish, and the Jaffa patrols eyed her with righteous suspicion as she hurried past their checkpoints. With no reason to stop her, however, they let her through uncontested and she rushed back to the Resistance Headquarters.

Colonel O'Neill and the Jaffa traitor were in the downstairs parlor drawing up battle plans. Neither looked up as Sam entered despite the fact she let the door slam behind her. She felt like a kid on Christmas and her birthday combined. On the third-floor landing, Danny Boy was sitting vigil in front of the door. He took in her smile and breathlessness and focused on the box.

"You found it?"

"I did. How is she...?"

"The same."

He opened the door and Sam went inside. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight in the middle of the room, draped by curtains like a shrine. She had to fight back tears as she reverently approached the body lying on the bed.

Janet Fraiser hadn't moved in ten months. A Jaffa patrol had caught her out after hours, ignoring the fact she was responding to a medical emergency, and shot her with one of their pulse weapons. It had completely destroyed her heart and a large portion of her internal organs. Her lungs would never again draw air, and her digestive system was shot. Sam spent that night and most of the next day fighting to keep Janet's mind alive. She tore apart anything she might help, sacrificing power to an entire city block to stimulate Janet's blood flow. 

Now Janet's torso was a mixture of repurposed autom devices that mimicked the rhythms of life. Her lungs inflated and deflated properly. She could eat and digest food. From her collarbone to her navel she was ninety percent artificial, but it would work if she found the right portable power source to run everything. 

She hoped she had just that thing in her hands. Danny Boy handed it over, and Sam carefully placed it in the cavity she had left open for it. She bit down on the tip of her tongue as she twisted it so the contacts would line up. "Pray, Danny Boy," she whispered. An autom power node, even at full strength, would only last five years at best. But that was five years she had to find a replacement. Five years when Janet would be laughing, talking, loving...

She activated her lover.

There was a quiet hum, which was completely silent when Sam lowered the metallic chest plate over the skeletal works. She had taken it from a female autom and, under a shirt, it would be unnoticeable. For all intents and purposes, Janet Fraiser would be alive again. 

Tears burned Sam's eyes as she cupped Janet's face. "C'mon. Come on, baby, I know you can do this. You're strong. You're so strong. Please..."

Janet's eyes opened. She parted her lips and then gasped, the tendons in her throat standing out as her eyes rolled back in her skull. She clutched Sam's arms, wheezed in a panic, and then grew tense.

" _Sam._ "

"It's me. You're here."

Janet's eyes swam around the room and then focused on Sam again. "I feel... weird..."

"It's a long story." She stroked Janet's face, brushing the hair back as tears rolled down her cheeks. "I'm sorry you were asleep so long. I had to find a heart... it took me a while to find one big enough."

Janet smiled. "Fli-irt."

"Rest for now. You've... gone through a lot of changes, and your body needs time to process them. We'll talk again when you wake up, okay?"

Janet nodded. "How long was I... gone?"

"Ten months."

Janet swallowed and winced. "I dreamt about you the whole time... it didn't seem that long."

Sam smiled and kissed Janet. And for the first time in longer than Sam cared to think about, Janet kissed her back.


End file.
